Part of a US university’s original chemistry lab has been discovered by builders after it had remained hidden behind a wall since the mid-19th century. The chemical ‘hearth’ – a small semi-circular alcove containing the remains of a furnace and stone work surfaces – was discovered on the ground floor of the University of Virginia’s Rotunda building by workmen carrying out renovation work.
Did you know that Oct. 15 is Global Handwashing Day? Hand-washing is a vital public and personal health activity and one that grew up alongside germ theory in the late 1800s. The University of Virginia Historical Collections at the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library has a terrific online exhibit, “Coming Clean; Hand Washing and Public Health.”
When Thomas Jefferson designed the University of Virginia's iconic Rotunda during the turn of the 19th century, he dedicated the ground floor for the study of science. Nearly 200 years later, workers renovating the building have stumbled across an elaborate chemical hearth that dates back to Jefferson's era.
Living without a car is getting easier in Charlottesville with the arrival of two new Zipcars. The Boston-based car rental company just added two more vehicles to its Charlottesville fleet. University of Virginia students, faculty and staff get a discount.
Firefighters in Charlottesville are going door to door making sure University of Virginia students are playing it safe. A majority of students don't live on UVA grounds, instead they rent apartments and houses around Charlottesville. City firefighters are focusing on these areas, checking up on smoke alarms, and giving students safety tips.
Some new flags with strong messages about domestic violence are now decorating the lawn at the University of Virginia. The flags symbolize warning signs people had wished they'd seen in abusive relationships. The flags are joined by T-shirts made by men and women in Charlottesville in early October.
Researchers at the University of Virginia are participating in a massive, international experiment, to study the origins of the universe. Neutrinos, subatomic remnants of the early universe, are high-energy particles that pass at nearly the speed of light through everything- our planet and our bodies. These ghostly particles are of intense interest to physicists because they may be a key player in how the universe came to be.
In an early reincarnation claim, a young boy became a sensation about 200 years ago after declaring that he remembered living a previous life as another boy who had died at the age of 6. A commemorative exhibition featuring the reported reincarnation, dating to the Edo Period (1603-1867), is on show at the Shinsengumi Furusato History Museum here through Nov. 15 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Katsugoro’s birth. A research project on pre-existence and rebirth is currently under way at the medical department of the University of Virginia and elsewhere. The University of Virginia...
In obese women most at risk for cancer, bariatric surgery slashed participants' weight by one-third, produced a mean weight loss of more than 100 pounds, and eliminated precancerous uterine growths. "If you look at cancers in women, about a fifth of all cancer deaths would be prevented if we had women at normal body weight in the US," said Susan C. Modesitt, MD, of the University of Virginia (UVA) Cancer Center.
A new study suggests the nation's Affordable Care Act is helping HIV positive patients. Researchers at the University of Virginia looked at close to 4,000 low-income Virginians with HIV. Nearly 79 percent of people who use the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program are able to suppress the virus. But suppression rates are almost 7 percent higher for HIV patients who switched to Affordable Care Act coverage two years ago.
(By Brandon Garrett, professor of law at the University of Virginia) "If you only look at the big banks, you will be missing the forest for the trees," said Hillary Clinton in the debate Tuesday night, responding to calls to break up the major banks. Corporate crime is a broader problem touching every industry and not just Wall Street. Clinton has proposed for the first time a top-to-bottom plan for policing and preventing corporate crime and financial misconduct. We have not seen the likes of it in this campaign or elsewhere. The plan addresses systemic risk in financ...
(By Larry J. Sabato, Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia) Last year at this time, Democrats were in the final month of their losing battle to hold the U.S. Senate. But while licking their wounds after the election, they consoled themselves with a 2016 comeback vision. Democrats already had a candidate so credentialed she was likely to sweep to the nomination and be in a solid position to bury the eventual GOP nominee. Demographics and destiny were on Hillary Clinton’s side, and she’d help the party recapture the Senate too. What...
How did we get to the point where it is more likely you’ll end up in the can if you knock off a 7-Eleven than if you’re responsible for the financial ruin — even the death — of countless people? The author of the book Too Big to Jail, University of Virginia Law School professor Brandon Garrett, says a lack of resources when going up against heavily lawyered big businesses contributed to the Justice Department’s don’t-prosecute predilection. But he adds this: “I’m puzzled that the misbehavior of high-profile i...
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy spurred numerous conspiracy theories, many of which doubted whether sniper Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and asserting that the CIA was involved. “For a complete nobody, Oswald certainly did seem to hang out with well-connected people,” University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato, author of “The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F.Kennedy,” told Business Insider in 2013.
With OTC remedies for colds crowding self-help shelves, experts are divided on the merits of single-symptom treatment over multi-symptom therapy. Ron Eccles of Cardiff University in Wales argued in favor of multi-symptom therapy, while Ronald Turner of the University of Virginia School of Medicine held the opposite view, claiming that targeted, single-component, single-symptom therapy is the ideal approach.
The idea that leaders’ actions are heavily shaped by the position of their country and the whims of its populace has long been the prevailing opinion among political psychologists. Allan Stam, dean of the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, believes this is a misguided assumption. Stam is co-author of the forthcoming book, “Why Leaders Fight,” which argues that measurable, individual personality traits are the most accurate indicators of a political leader’s tendency toward violence and their actions during warti...
Can something as simple as watching movies—and empathizing with fictional characters—help generate more compassion and understanding in the real world? Roger Ebert thought so. “The purpose of civilization and growth is to be able to reach out and empathize a little bit with other people,” said Ebert in Life Itself, a 2014 documentary about late film critic’s life and career. Science supports Ebert’s theory. Dr. Jim Coan, associate professor of clinical psychology and director of the Virginia Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of V...
Will Overman may be the busiest man in Americana music. I used to think Jerry Douglas was until I met Overman, who is the front man of his band of the same name, which is affectionately referred to by fans as WOB. The 21-year-old sociology major at the University of Virginia works part-time in a soup shop and spends every other spare minute writing songs -- songs with lyrics and melodies that belie his youth -- booking gigs and marketing his band's music, which has been described as "amped-up" folk rock.
Dr. Marcus L. Martin is the recipient of this year’s Paul Goodloe McIntire Citizenship Award, given out each year by the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. Martin — an emergency care physician by trade and former assistant dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine — wears many hats for UVa, including vice president for diversity and equity.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has added the President of the University of Virginia to its ranks. Teresa Sullivan has been inducted as a member of the Class of 2015.